By Tracee Sioux
I started a book club two months ago. A lovely woman showed up and suggested we call it Between the Covers. It implies something just a little naughty - I dig it.
I have always wanted a group of women that I hang out with on a regular basis and I'm a huge reader. I kept wishing this into my life. But, you know, I live in a small town and I never got an invitation.
That's the problem - I was waiting for an invitation. Two months ago I decided I would extend the invitation and suffer the possible rejection of no one wanting to come to my book club. Cause really, that's what's hard about making new friends - the possible rejection.
I want it to be some place where an eclectic group of women meet and share something of themselves and let's face it - get out of the house without their kids or significant others.
The interesting thing has been the rejections. Yes, I've asked women that I've seen around town to come and they've not even considered the idea. Not even for two seconds. But, the rejection hasn't been about me (no I don't like you enough to hang out once a month).
It's been about the lack of time and money available to spend on themselves. Let's face it, to be in a book club you have to buy the book. I buy all books used at Amazon or at a garage sale or after a trade with a used book store because we're on the Dave Ramsey http://traceesioux.blogspot.com/2007/01/shut-up-john-mayer-stop-waiting-for.html zero-based budget plan and it must come out of my blow money. So, we aren't reading new releases at my book club. But you still have to be willing to spend a couple of bucks on yourself. Then, you have to actually make the time for yourself to read the book. Yes, take the book into the bathtub or to bed with you and stay awake long enough to read a couple of pages. You have to say, hey, I deserve some time to be off in my own head and read for a little while. And then you have to find a babysitter or make sure your spousage (stole that term off another blog - be flattered) understands that he must be home in time to watch the kids so you can actually GO to the book club for an hour-and-a-half. Knowing that childcare would be a problem I even arranged the book club to be on a day where babysitting is available at the local indoor playground, but then you have to decide that me-time is worth the $3 an hour it costs to leave the kids there. For some, that's a problem cause it's just not in the zero-based budget, especially if you're dropping off three or four kids.
Anywho. The point is that some women I've talked to have just said, no way can I afford myself all of that time and energy. Maybe they have other ways to take time for themselves and I truly hope that is so. But, it worries me to think that they have reserved nothing for themselves because if that's the case I think the messages they are sending to the entire family are negative.
The message is: Women don't deserve time or money to spend on themselves. Daughters grow up being the same relentless super-women their own mothers are and emulate the behavior of never taking time to relax and enjoy their own interests. Sons grow up and expect their wives to sacrifice every second for the family.
Robin McGraw actually wrote a whole book, Inside My Heart, http://www.amazon.com/Inside-My-Heart-Choosing-Passion/dp/078521836X/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-9541949-9891038?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175357195&sr=8-1 about women needing to take time for themselves. Now, I haven't read it because I haven't yet found it at a garage sale and it would be a little too naughty of me to spend $24.99 on a book. But, the gist according to the one-hour advertisement on Dr. Phil when she released the book was, women are driving themselves to the ground by never taking time for themselves and perhaps it's best to be a little naughty and take the time to explore personal interests before you drive yourself into an early grave with all this self-sacrifice.
5 comments:
Book club!! Book club! i love books, is it mostly married women that are in your club? i mean, would i be welcome? do i need to have credentials? cause i'd love to come, if you could give me more info on it! my email (sorry i didn't tell you way before now) is klutzygirl2000@msn.com if you get a chance to email me, please do. thanks!
-leslie lama-
I SO enjoyed our time together. I also had no shame bringing in my library book LOL!
PS: I started blogging again. Thanks for reminding us to take time out to refuel. (Even if it is with a trashy Harlequin "Novel" in the bath tub.) :P
I think this has nothing to do with "women not having time or money to spend on themselves" as much as it has to do with people not properly budgeting their time and money to the point that they have nothing extra to develop themselves personally. I am not a woman, but I often find myself making time and money in my family's various budgets for my wife to spend a little extra on her wants, and yet budgeting nothing for myself. I believe people in general need to cut back on spending, just to save some spending for personal development of every memeber of each family.
I love book club. It's the sewing circle of our generation.
And I have to say, I don't know anybody, male or female, (parents excepted) that has the slightest problem spending time or money on themselves. Then again, I don't know any martyr-type mothers (or fathers for that matter) or super-women. To try to be super-woman is a joke. One of the things I like most about book club is meeting really intelligent, interesting women who broaden my mind. Life's too short not to have interactions with other women like that.
I hear you Tracee. When I was growing up, my stay-at-home mom would never do something like that, mostly because of the cost of a book and the time. But she did manage to carve out time to talk a nice long walk with her best friend from church each night. They got exercise, they got to chat, and their husbands got the quality time of reading stories or playing with the kids for awhile. It's important. Don't give it up, and keep looking for more invitees. This past fall, I started the book club that Rebecca's been coming to, and I think we've mastered the perfect blend of women with different experiences and we have the BEST time together.
Post a Comment